Guilt or Gift?

… I died to the law, so that I might live to God.  Gal 2:19

Paul speaks here of dying to the notion that we can please God through works of the law (i.e. obedience to a set of rules).  Also, of relieving oneself from the law as a taskmaster and, ultimately, a tool of death.

Living to God arises out of the realization that our standing before Him (and our ability to live unto Him) arises not out of our performance and obedience, but out of faith and grace.  Out of freedom, not force.

Through faith in Christ…

We are relieved from… striving… failure… guilt… bondage… condemnation… separation.

And invited into… rest… grace… peace… freedom… justification… communion.

A few verses later, Paul writes… “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”  (Gal 3:3) 

How foolish we are sometimes! Trading confidence in the unchanging grace of God for dependence on our temperamental flesh.  Let us be fools for Christ, but never duped by the flesh.

Where are you living today?  In the guilt?  Or in the gift?

Lessons from Psalm 23 - Fill in the Blank

 

“Even when I walk through the valley of deep darkness,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and your staff reassure me”

Psalm 23:4

Tests are a fact of life.  From elementary school through graduation to the next life, life is full of them.  Spelling tests, math tests, science tests, driver’s tests, personality tests, blood tests, eye tests, tests of character, tests of strength, tests of faith.  The list is endless.  

Though we generally don’t like tests, we often have a style we prefer.  What’s yours?  Essay? Multiple choice? True-False? Fill in the blank?

Like you and like me, David faced all kinds of tests.  How he did in Hebrew school no one can say, but history records his diploma from the School of Hard Knocks.  It was there he did some of his best work – writing masterful essay after essay in what would later be called the Book of Psalms. 

David was a master of pen and poem.  This most know.  But a closer look reveals David’s  mastery of the fill-in-the-blank as well.

In our previous discussion of Psalm 23, we noted (and likely coveted) David’s statement of confidence:  “I will fear no evil.”  We also noted the source of that confidence – a critical phrase at a pivotal peak in the Psalm.  Two Hebrew words. The source of David’s confidence:  “You.  With-me.”[1]  [Psa 23:4]

David kept a mental 3x5 card in his hip pocket for tests of courage and faith.  A cheat sheet of sorts.  It contained two Hebrew words and one blank.  “You _______ with-me.”  When doubt, despair, danger or death looked David in the eye, the card came out.  “You _______ with me.”

It worked like this… David speaking to God.  “God, there is a lot I don’t know.  I don’t know what you are going to do or how you are going to do it.  But this much I know:  You have been with me, so I can say with confidence that you are with me.  Even when I can’t see you.  Even in the deepest darkness.  You with me, God.  In the past.  In the present.  And into the future.”  God’s past faithfulness gave David present and future confidence.

Maybe you need a mental note card in your hip pocket today.  (Cheat sheets are allowed here)  Maybe you’ve been wondering where God is in your current circumstances.  He is with you.  Maybe you’re wondering if you can handle an uncertain future that looms ahead of you.  Where will God be then?  With you.  His presence is not bound by any single verb tense – past, present or future.  He has been.  He is.  He will be.  Always.  With you.

Make a note card today with three simple words as a simple but profound reminder:  God with you.  Write it on your mirror -- or your hand.  Wherever you’ll see it when you need it most.

And remember:  The confidence you need today and tomorrow is found in the faithfulness of God in all of your yesterdays.

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[1] See previous blog entry “Lessons from Psalm 23: David’s Confidence” for an explanation.  English requires three words to render the same.

Lessons from Psalm 23 - David's Confidence

“Even when I walk through the valley of deep darkness,

I will fear no evil…”

Psalm 23:4

Psalm 23 is what biblical scholars call a song of confidence.

We all need a song of confidence sometimes.  Because we all encounter trials, we all face fears, and we all find ourselves in places and moments where deep darkness seems to drown out every ray of hope.  Those places where plans and dreams fade to black, where everything we thought we knew, both present and future, is up for grabs.

What will you do when your greatest fear looks you in the eye?  When words you never wanted to hear reach your ears, how will you respond?  Will you cope?  Or will you crumble?  Will you have a faith that stands?

Six weeks ago, a diagnosis delivered in the tight confines of a doctor’s office gave birth to my greatest fear.  The possibility of losing my wife looked me in the eye and refused to blink.  On March 15, 2012, my wife Heather was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in her right eye.  My wife.  My best friend.  My partner in family and life and ministry.  Melanoma.  Cancer. 

For a few lingering, slow-motion moments, I was ok.  I told myself it would be ok.  I gave her a reassuring look.  And then more words came.  Words like “chest scans” and “liver function.”  I knew what they meant.  I’d been down this road before.  My knees went weak.  My head got light.  I needed to sit down.  This couldn’t be happening.  Not her.  Not now.  Not like this.

You see, for my family, cancer has been the bully in the schoolyard for the past 15 years.  Occasionally he moves on and picks on someone else, but not before he has left broken hearts and shattered dreams in his wake, claiming the lives of people we love.  He is heartless and care-less.  He doesn’t limit his territory to dark alleys or the wrong part of town.  His patterns are unpredictable.  He doesn’t give a rip about character or karma.  He finds you in your bed at night, and refuses to relent in spite of the day.  As far as I’m concerned, if Jesus is the image of the invisible God (and He is), then cancer is the image of our invisible enemy – coming only to steal, kill and destroy.

David and I (and likely you) have something in common.  We both know a place called the valley of deep darkness.[1]  That place where looming darkness attempts to drown out hope.  I don’t know what David’s valley was.  My guess is that he had many such valleys.  Cancer is my valley of deep darkness.

Yet David and I have something else in common: a tested and proven confidence in God.  I love David’s declaration of confidence in Psalm 23 verse four. “I will fear no evil.”  David would have tweeted it like this:  “I. Will. Fear. No. Evil. #Confidence #Steadfastness.”  In the face of darkness - the thickest darkness.[2]  In the face of fear – perhaps his greatest fear.  Confidence in God.  Don’t you want that?  Who wouldn’t want that?!? 

We would do well to locate the source of such confidence.  David reveals it in two Hebrew words.  We require three to translate to English, but they are broken up like this: “You.  With me.”  The reason for David’s confidence in the face of evil, in the face of fear and in the midst of darkness:  “You.  With me.”  When he couldn’t see God.  When he couldn’t feel God.  He still knew that God was “with him.”

David’s statement reveals an important spiritual truth:  Past faithfulness builds future confidence.  A good friend of mine[3] shared that in a sermon more than five years ago and I remember it to this day.  Not because the words are profound, but because the truth of it is - as I have witnessed time and time again.

  Past faithfulness builds future confidence.  The past faithfulness of God builds future confidence in us.  By experiencing the loving care of our Shepherd through daily life as well as times of trial, we know that He will care for and sustain us whatever may come our way.  It is a confidence borne out of experience.

Hebrew scholars tell us that David’s verse of confidence – “I will fear no evil, for you are with me” – is the apex or peak of his song of confidence.  That means that everything in the psalm flows up to it or down from it. 

David knew God’s faithfulness – and he makes this clear in the beginning of the psalm.  When he could find no place to rest, God was a pasture of cool green grass where he could lay down in safety.  When the threats of his enemies echoed in his ears, the reassuring voice of God was as the sounds of soothing waters.  And when his soul approached the breaking point, the Good Shepherd was faithful to bring restoration – in Hebrew, to “give life back” to his weary soul.

The psalmist’s words in Psalm 71 are so relevant here.

“For you, O Lord, are my hope,

my trust, O Lord, from my youth…

You who have made me see many troubles 

and calamities will revive me again.”  

 (Psa 71: 5,20)

Past faithfulness built future confidence for David.  And God's past faithfulness builds future confidence for us as well.

The confidence you need today is found in the faithfulness of God in all of your yesterdays.

Author's note:  You can find information and updates regarding Heather's condition on her Caring Bridge site...  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/heatherhawks

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[1] Many translations have the phrase “valley of the shadow of death,” however the word “death” is not there in the original Hebrew text.  A more literal translation is “valley of deep darkness” or “valley of thick darkness.”  Tradition is the primary reason that “valley of the shadow of death” continues to be a popular reading. The fact that the word for darkness here is the strongest possible Hebrew word for darkness leads some to conclude that David must have had death in mind.

[2] The word for darkness here is the strongest possible Hebrew word for darkness.  In Job 28:3 it is used for the darkness of a mineshaft – the kind of darkness where you can’t see your hand in front of your face.

[3] Credit for this memorable phrase goes to my good friend and faithful brother in Christ, Steven Bronston.